ST. LOUIS – The head of St. Louis’ NAACP is speaking out after a federal dismissal of complaints against St. Louis regional schools.
“Basically saying they were dismissing our complaint in totality,” said Adolphus M. Pruitt II, president of St. Louis City NAACP.
It’s a letter Adolphus Pruitt claims dismisses the St. Louis City NAACP’s charges of racial discrimination in St. Louis city and county schools in the region.
“What (the letter) says is it was making it illegal for a school or a school district to collect race-based data,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt and the NAACP filed complaints in August 2024, citing pervasive inequities in academic proficiency, resource allocation, disciplinary practices and mental health support for Black students across 35 school districts.
In a dismissal letter dated Feb. 14, the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights writes, “Regarding racial disparities in reading and math proficiency, the OCR is dismissing your complaint.”
Saying it lacks jurisdiction and adds the data provided was not sufficient to warrant opening an investigation.
Whether more of a legal move or possibly related to the new administration’s efforts to remove DEI efforts, both are topics of discussion for many.
Adolphus Pruitt showed a replica of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“This reinterpretation and direction from the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights is just the first filling,” Pruitt said. “They’re going to try to dismantle the department of education piece by piece and this is just one of the ways.”
FOX 2 reached out to the Missouri Department of Education and St. Louis city schools about the NAACP concerns.
Neither had any comment.